Cables, such as stays, cables for mooring floating structures, for cable-ways or cable-bridges, are known to be subjected to considerable pulling forces, with appreciable spatial angular variations, particularly due to the mobility of the structures retained or due to the action of the wind, waves, currents, etc. The cables may be conventional stranded cables or bundles of parallel rectilinear wires or strands enclosed in protective envelopes or sheathes, as in the prestressing art.
Also, to ensure guiding of the deflection of cables where they leave their anchorage, it has already been proposed that the cables pass through an outwardly trumpet flared channel, interposing between the outer surface of the cable and the inner wall of the flare, a solid lubricant avoiding, in manner known per se, a surface alteration of the strands due to the variations in tension of the cable pressed against the guiding surface.
Particularly when it is applied to a cable formed by a bundle of parallel strands, such an embodiment is unsatisfactory, as it does not avoid the deformations of the cross-section of the cable which, due to the mutual actions between strands, produce in the cable undesirable localized stresses entailing a considerable reduction in its fatigue resistance.